A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Sixth Grade Thought and Research Textbook for Explaining the Mechanisms of Its Socialization Features

The education system is one of the complex and large social institutions in any society, which is inextricably linked to social, cultural and economic growth and development, and which gradually evolves from a simple elementary state towards a better, more complex one. This system has created healthy, growing, balanced, developed, and talented human beings, on the one hand, and has satisfied human resource needs in different cultural, social and economic sectors, on the other hand. Socialization is one of the major goals of education which takes place at schools where textbooks can play a critical role in socializing learners. Socialization features are characterized by some special mechanisms and can affect learners. Therefore, clarifying the way such mechanisms are influencing can be very illuminating. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is considered as one way for revealing how mechanisms of socialization features work. CDA can be used to express the relationship between language, power and ideology. This study was an attempt to analyze the Sixth Grade Thought and Research Textbook in the 2019-2020 academic year through benefitting from the integration pattern proposed by Van Leeuwen (1996) and by adding socialization features, including values, norms, roles and life skills, to the discourse-oriented features of Van Leeuwen. This was made possible through the use of CDA. Furthermore, the existing differences between the relevant features were taking into account by calculating frequency, percentage of socialization and discourse-oriented features, and Chi square. Based on the findings, traditional gender roles, traditional roles of kids and teens, social rules and regulations, social ceremonies, theoretical values and decision-making skills had the highest levels of frequency in the textbook. Moreover, religious, political, national and familial values were hidden in the relevant discourses of the textbook. Additionally, traditions, rituals, rites, social traditions, ethnic practices, effective communication skills, the skill of saying no and tolerance for success were not considered in the textbook. Moreover, all values and norms of social pact, social etiquette, social ethics, social law and regulations, gender and age maps, and life skills, including self-awareness, empathy, interpersonal relationships, emotion management, problem solving, decision contemplation, creative thinking, and critical thinking were considered in the discourses of the textbook. Considering gender maps, males were depicted more than females in the book, and both males and females were depicted more in their traditional roles than their new roles. Based on the findings of this study, it can be argued that religious values and traditional gender maps were hidden in the discourses of the textbook. The results further showed that the frequency of concealment was less than frequency of revelation of features. Therefore, it seems that the textbook authors have tried to clearly show their favored line of thought or ideology. The results further revealed that from among the norms, social customs, social rituals, social traditions and ethnic practices, and from among the skills, effective communication, coping with stress, the skill of saying no, and tolerance for success were ignored in the discourses of the textbooks. It should be noted here that national, economic, artistic, globalization and family values were less frequent in the textbook than individual, religious and theoretical values. Moreover, the frequency levels of creative and critical thinking skills was less than those of problem solving and decision making skills. As other findings of this study revealed, depersonalization was less frequent than characterization, uncertainty was less frequent than identification, naming was less frequent than classification and de-linking was less frequent than linking in the relevant textbook. Considering these findings, future researchers are recommended to focus on the authorship and compilation of new textbooks by taking into account the new plan of the primary and secondary education system. Additionally, future researcher are recommended to examine the expertise and the theoretical and ideological orientation of experts involved in compiling the present textbook.